


Tired

by Smapdi



Category: The Mindy Project
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-17
Updated: 2015-05-17
Packaged: 2018-03-30 21:52:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3953104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Smapdi/pseuds/Smapdi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>These two idiots get a flat tire. A variation on that old sharing a bed trope, because who can't get enough of tropey tropes? Only this time it's a car, and also barely fits the trope, because why not change things up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tired

**Author's Note:**

> From a drabble prompt on Tumblr that just got outta hand.  
> Redglasseslove - Danny and Mindy in a car that broke down in the middle of nowhere. They're more interested in each other than finding help.  
> This is pretty much just fluff - there's not much of a plot, but I think it's kind of fun. Set sometime in those glorious days of will they/won't they?

"Mmmm, Chris, these strawberries are delicious, but isn't there something else you could dip into that chocolate?" Mindy laughs seductively, trailing her fingers down the tall Australian's bare abdomen. "And where did that brother of yours go? These feet aren't going to massage themselves!"

As if by magic, the brunette is kneeling beside her, an eager grin on his face. She pokes him with a toe and he grabs her ankle, pressing his lips to the inside, his other hand reaching to part her knees. She throws her head back, stifling a moan, as another pair of arms wraps around her...

A loud bang, followed by a rattling jolt, startles her awake. 

"Damn it, Danny, what did you do that for? I was the filling in a Hemsworth sandwich and they were just about to meet in the middle!" Rubbing her neck where her seat belt dug in, Mindy glares at the driver, who is navigating the car towards a wide dirt path at the side of the road. 

"I didn't do it on purpose, and I don't even want to know what you're talking about." Danny is scowling, his face illuminated by the green dashboard lights. "We blew a tire."

"Lucky tire," Mindy grumbles, pulling the hem of her short knit dress down where it had ridden up as she slept. Considering the company, it's probably a good thing that her dream was interrupted, but now she's left groggy and a little frustrated. 

"Damn it. It's pitch dark, and I'm gonna get all dirty changing this thing," Danny laments as he bangs his hands on the steering wheel. 

"Okay, Mr. We Don't Need To Waste Good Money On A Hotel, you're the one who wanted to drive back tonight. Now it's like midnight, and where the sweet baby..."

"Mindy, don't say it!"

She wrinkles her nose at him. "Where the sweet baby Blue Ivy are we? Is that a forest? Did you decide to kidnap me and run away to a cult? I will not be one of many wives, Danny. I'm not a twice a week kind of gal."

"The radio said there was an accident on the interstate , so I found a side route. I think we're near Poughkeepsie."

"You might as well tell me we're on the moon." She rolls down the window and peeks her head out. "Speaking of which, it's a full one, Danny, so you should have enough light. You're not going to turn into a werewolf, are you?" 

He responds by grunting and getting out of the car. Mindy follows, her feet bare, and side-by-side they observe the rear driver's side tire, which is looking pathetic and deflated. 

"I knew you should've let me drive, Danny. You've only had a license for like a week." She shakes her head sadly.

"Okay, that's not true and you know it. I got my license months ago and I'm an excellent driver. This tire has some kind of structural flaw or something." Danny squats beside it. 

"Or maybe you drove over a spike strip or something because that tire is tore up! Did you get into a high-speed chase while I was sleeping?" She looks around, but there's nothing to be seen but open road and trees. 

Ignoring her, he opens the trunk and pulls out a jack, giving it a quick once over. "Yeah, I think I know how this works," he mutters to himself, and Mindy rolls her eyes. 

"Seriously, have you ever changed a tire before?" she sighs. 

"Seriously, could you stop talking and use your phone light thingy to help me see? I kind of want to kill myself right now, but not by dropping a car on my head." 

She's actually a little excited to help, so she dashes off to grab her phone and fiddles with the flashlight app as she returns to Danny's side of the car. He's taken his jacket off, illuminated in the moonlight as he rolls up the sleeves of his button down, and by God, he's kind of hot. And by kind of, she means very. Mindy directs her light at the wheel well and Danny kneels down, the fabric of his shirt taut over his back, and she watches him in fascination as he tries to figure out where the equipment goes. Just as he begins to unscrew the hubcap, she realizes they've forgotten something. 

"Shouldn't you have the spare tire?" 

Danny stops, rocking back onto his heels, and looks up at her. He's sweating, and when he rubs his forehead, a streak of grease is left behind.

"Shit, yeah. I don't suppose I could ask you to get it out, could I?"

Her response is just a slack jawed look of outrage. 

He stands up, his hands dusty and smudged, and nods with a grimace. "Thanks," he huffs as he walks past her and opens the trunk again. She's about to start a quick game of Crossy Road when a flurry of curses comes flying, and Danny returns angrily. 

"It's flat. The fucking spare is flat. That god damned rental company is supposed to check that their cars are fully functional and they send us out on the road like this? Unacceptable!" He grabs the jack and flings it across the dirt ineffectually. 

"Well, you can leave them a terrible Yelp review when we get home. IF we get home. But what the hell do we do now?" 

Danny goes to retrieve the jack and shoves it back in the trunk. "I don't know, call a tow truck?"

Mindy frowns. "I have no signal here, do you?"

He digs in his pocket gingerly and retrieves what Mindy recognizes as the very latest in late 2000's flip phone technology. "Nope." He closes it with an angry snap. "I guess I'll go up the road to find a call box."

"And leave me here to be murdered? I don't think so, buddy. Besides, it's dangerous. You'll get creamed by a big rig and I'll have that on my conscience forever." It's a chilly night, and she rubs her bare arms, eyeing Danny's cast off jacket. On second thought, she has sweats in her suitcase, and if they're staying the night in the car, those will keep her from freezing. That, and the presence of another warm body. She eyeballs the space in the back seat and then wonders what the hell she is thinking. 

It's not like she hasn't thought it before. 

It's just easier to avoid thinking about Danny, because he's clearly not interested in her in that way. At least, she's assumed so from his attitude, which normally varies along a scale from disdain to outright disgust. But this weekend was different, and she can't help but be intrigued. 

They haven't really spent that much time together in the past, even though they've known each other for years, so she really hadn't expected that wandering around a conference with hundreds of other people would feel quite so...intimate? Is that the right word? All she knows is that it didn't seem like Danny left her side for more than a minute, and while there were dozens (she counted) of women eager for his attention, he never noticed. 

She didn't really give him a chance to, but never mind that. What mattered was that while she'd managed over the years to pretty much convince Danny to be her friend, she'd always deep down wanted more, but it hadn't seemed possible. Still, there was something about the way he'd been looking at her that gives her an odd confidence, and maybe she's brave enough to see what might happen...

A grouchy voice shakes her from her thoughts. 

"So what, we just wait here and see if someone drives by, on a Sunday night? It could be hours. Hell, it could be morning." Danny looks dejectedly down the road. 

Mindy gives him the once-over. He's ruined a nice white shirt with grease, he's got dusty tracks down his face where sweat rolled through it, and he has dirt all over his dress pants. She feels a strange tug of sympathy, especially since she's flawless, aside from the bottoms of her feet, but it had felt so good to take off her shoes when they got in the car after a long day of standing and shmoozing. The weekend conference had been successful but tiring, and she is longing for the chance to curl up in her cozy bed. 

That isn't happening now, though. 

Danny turns back towards her, hands on hips, and Mindy can't help but want to fix him a little. She reaches up and wipes at the greasy smudge on his temple. He flinches, like she burned him with a hot poker, and bats her hand away. 

"Stop, what are you doing?"

"Danny, you're all dirty, let me just..." She reaches for his face, grabbing his chin in one hand and swiping at him with the other. He pulls back and growls. 

"Knock it off! Don't you have any comprehension of personal space?" 

Clearly, she doesn't, as she nearly lunges at him, committed now to the cause. Danny grabs at her, wrapping his long fingers around her wrists and pushing her away, and her ass hits the side of the car with a thunk. 

"Hey, I'm just trying to help!" She yelps, struggling to free herself, but he's holding her firmly with her arms over her head. 

"I don't need you to wipe my face like I'm a little kid, okay? You want to help, how about not chattering at me like a chipmunk while I try to get us out of this mess? How about..."

Danny stops and stares at her, and he's breathing rapidly, his face really, really close. Much closer than she can remember him being before, and even with just the moonlight, she can see how dilated his pupils are, how flared his nostrils are, and either he's really, really angry, or...

His eyes flick down to her lips, which are parted in surprise, and she's breathing a little bit quickly as well, to match her pounding pulse. She thinks she'd rather like to kiss him, dirty face and all, and she takes a step forward when a sharp pain in her foot causes her to cry out. 

Danny releases her and jumps back, startled and suddenly awkward, and Mindy lifts her foot and leaves a dark puddle in its wake. 

"What happened? What did you do? Why the hell are you out here with no shoes on?" He's kneeling and reaching for her foot as she fights the sting of tears from the pain. 

"Don't touch me with your dirty hands! I'll get gangrene!" she wails.

"I've got a first aid kit in my luggage, hang on." Danny heads to the trunk while Mindy slumps against the car, holding her foot tight to help stop the bleeding. 

"There's baby wipes in my suitcase, wash yourself so I don't catch leprosy."

"Mindy, you're a doctor, you know nothing like that is going to happen."

"Danny, you were touching dirty CAR PARTS."

After clarifying which sections of her luggage he can and cannot touch with his "disgusting disease ridden fingers," he's able to clean off his hands and help her into the back seat before getting the kit to attend to her foot. It's a small but deep cut on the ball of her foot, and will probably need a stitch or two. 

"Don't try to look up my skirt while you do this," she chides through gritted teeth as Danny squats down, her foot in his hand. He rolls his eyes and cleans the wound. "You're no Liam Hemsworth!" 

"You need a sock, let me get you one of mine," Danny tells her after wrapping it with gauze. 

"It better be a clean one," she grumbles, wiping her own hands clean from dirt and blood. Clearly, the universe is trying to warn her. 

"Yeah, well, you get what you get."

\---

Danny's mind is racing as he digs through Mindy's completely disorganized luggage for this alleged box of cleansing wipes. He just keeps finding things that freak him out - bra after bra in rainbow colors, and worse, the matching underwear. Panties. God damn it. Who needs this much lingerie!? It was one weekend, one night's stay at the hotel, but it's like she cleared out Victoria's Secret. 

His fingers close on a blue plastic box and at last he can stop this mad treasure hunt. He quickly cleans off his hands and returns to his cranky, noisy patient. Mindy is half laying across the back seat, moaning in a disturbingly sexual way. Her hurt foot is resting on the back of the front passenger seat, and he feels a pang of concern that she's going to bleed on the fabric and lose him his security deposit. Then he feels guilty for thinking about that. 

When she sees him, she lowers her foot and sits up to inspect that his hands are suitably clean, and then to add insult to injury, she grabs the box of wipes and dabs at his face again. Danny doesn't even bother to fend her off this time. He's exhausted. The past day and a half, he's been subject to the whirlwind that is Mindy - from her nonstop chatter and singing the entire drive, to her constant cheeriness and activity as she dragged him around the conference in her attempts to make everyone her friend. And the amazing thing was that it worked - she was fantastic at networking, and she managed to charm everyone she met. 

He hadn't wanted to admit it, but somehow she got him under her spell too. And it wasn't just her outrageously short, tight dresses and beaming smile that did it, though it didn't hurt. He's only human. No, it was much more subtle, like the way she focused on him like they were the only two in the room, or the way she held eye contact just a little longer than necessary. 

So yeah, when he was pressed up against her, after wrestling her hands away from his face, it was kind of the last straw. Her body was just as soft and warm as he expected, and if not for that malevolent sliver of glass, he might have cast off his last shreds of resolve and kissed her. Or let her kiss him, really, because she had a glint in her eye that told him she was about to strike. 

But none of that really matters, because it didn't happen. He grasps her ankle, maybe a tad roughly, and catches his breath when his fingers slip across her skin, because it's devastatingly silky and smooth. Mindy gets short tempered when she's hurting, so he focuses just on relieving that pain, neatly cleaning the puncture and wrapping her foot in gauze. He gets socks for her, clean ones, because he always has at least two extra pairs packed, and he knows that's logical, unlike the crazy quantities of undergarments Mindy has brought along. 

And now he's thinking about that again. 

She puts the socks on without complaint, to his surprise, because black dress socks don't go with her sparkly, snug dress at all, and then she stands gingerly. 

"What are you doing? Stay off your feet," he grumbles. 

"I'm not sleeping in this dress, Danny." Mindy hobbles to the back of the car and starts to dig through her luggage. 

"You slept fine in it while I was driving."

"Yes, well it wasn't freezing while you were driving, but I think if we turned the heater on overnight, we might wake up dead." She peeks from behind the open trunk lid. "Turn around, you pervert."

Dutifully, Danny turns and crosses his arms. He doesn't mean to look,because he's a gentleman, but a flicker of movement catches his eye in the side mirror and he freezes. Mindy is turned away from him and she's in the process of pulling her dress over her head, so in the moonlight he can see a swath of shadowy skin down to the curve of her hips. Of course, he looks away immediately, but his response is instant and a little feral. 

She's barely limping when she returns, snug in knit pants and a sweatshirt. He watches her crawl in the back seat before shaking his head and taking her previous spot in the passenger seat. 

"What are you doing?" 

"I'm going to sleep," he grumbles. 

"Come back here with me." Mindy's voice is lower in pitch than usual, and he wonders if it's intentional,or she's just sleepy. Either way, it stirs something in him that's better left alone. "You can't sleep up there all night."

"I'm fine up here, thanks."

"Danny Castellano, you're too old to try and sleep sitting up. You'll put your back out and not only will I have to take over all your patients, but I'll never hear the end of your complaining. There's plenty of room back here. I barely take up any space!"

He weighs his options. He can listen to her nag him for 20 minutes before he relents, or cut to the chase and give up now. 

"Move over," he growls. 

She scoots and lets him slide in, and there's no way even one person could sleep comfortably, let alone two. Danny angles himself awkwardly, his legs bent next to Mindy's, and he's wondering how she's going to lie down when she simply leans up against him, squashing his arm between their bodies. He has to move it, and when he does, she clambers on him like a koala, wrapping one arm around his waist and laying her head on his chest. 

He was uncomfortable in the front seat, but this is a whole new level. Mindy exhales a deep breath and it's like she's trying to tunnel into his skin. Danny lays there stiffly, his arm just dangling over his head, and he darts his eyes around like a caged animal as she burrows and jams her knees into his thigh and sighs. 

"Are you going to stop wiggling?"

"I'm trying to get comfortable Danny. Gosh."

She's quiet for a few minutes, and he thinks she's nodding off while he contemplates spending the next few hours trapped and awake, because there's no possible way he can sleep like this. 

But she's not asleep. 

"Danny," she whispers, startling him. 

"Hmmm?" he grunts, not wanting to encourage her. 

"I'm not sleepy."

"You were sleeping half an hour ago!"

"I know, but it's like taking a nap. It reset my clock and I now I'm wide awake."

She's raised her head up to look at him and he looks away. She's too close, and he can smell her shampoo, something citrusy. "Well too bad. Just close your eyes and you'll fall asleep eventually."

Only a minute passes before she speaks again. "Danny."

He just sighs in response. 

"Danny, you smell like oil."

He hadn't considered the fact the slight be smelling him too. "Yeah, that might be from climbing under the car for no reason. Thanks for reminding me."

"It's not bad."

"Okay. Go to sleep."

Thirty seconds pass. 

"Danny?"

"What?" He's a little loud, and a little curt, but every second is pulling at him like torture. He wants to wrap his arms around her and feel those gentle curves he's only observed at a distance, and they're within reach, teasing him. She's watching him again, propped up on one elbow, her hand on his chest, and he wonders if she can feel his heartbeat, because he can hear it pounding in his ears. 

"If I get gangrene in my foot and they have to chop it off, should I get a robot foot, or one of those cool ski ones that make you run really fast?"

Her ridiculousness deflates his tension, and Danny lets out a deep breath. "They don't make you run fast. You still have to do the running." 

Her smile is gleaming in the blue tinted moonlight. 

"Robot foot it is!"

"You're not going to get gangrene. You probably won't even need stitches."

"Okay." 

"Why are you staring at me?" He finally lets himself meet her eyes. They're twinkling, and suddenly he realizes she's completely aware of what she's doing to him. And she's enjoying it. 

"I don't know. I've been trying to figure that out for a while." 

"Okay, would you stop?" Danny holds the eye contact, willing himself to look away, but he can't. 

"Okay."

But she doesn't stop, and even in dim lighting, he can see that look in her eye, and before he can even process it, she's darting up and pressing her lips against his. 

It catches him completely off guard, but his instincts kick in, and that awkwardly dangling arm wraps around her and holds her tight against him. 

She's completely in control, digging her fingers into his shirt as her mouth moves gently, her tongue slipping out and coaxing the same from him, and when he does, she makes a tiny purring noise like a happy kitten. He's barely even had a chance to respond when she pulls away and rests her head back on his chest. 

His pulse takes a while to return to normal as she drifts off to sleep. He eventually follows. 

When Danny awakens, after one of Mindy's startlingly loud snores, two things are immediately evident. The sun is rising, and he has to pee. Her head has slumped lower, now resting mid torso, and her arm is draped right above his belt buckle, making it more difficult for him to escape. He opens the door and slowly pulls himself free, careful to make sure the bulk of her body stays on the seat before he heads to relieve himself. 

He walks a bit across the clearing toward a gathering of trees. He's got one hand propping himself against up, still half asleep, and the other aiming to make sure he misses his shoes, when he hears a quiet throat clearing and knows she's awake. He finishes and zips before turning around and steeling himself for the inevitable talk, because it's Mindy and there's no doubt she'll want to explain or excuse or somehow make it even more excruciating for him. He's already hopelessly confused about what happened.

She's sitting half out of the car and gesturing at him with the baby wipes, her head turned away. 

"Thanks." Danny rubs the wipe over his hands. He never realized quite what a germaphobe she was before, but it makes sense, being a doctor and all. "How's your foot feeling?"

"It's fine, I'm sure." Mindy looks up at him, her face expectant. It's like she's waiting for something from him, but he doesn't know what to say. 

Won't she bring it up...or maybe she forgot? Maybe she was already asleep when she kissed him and didn't even know it was happening. That's possible, right? 

He's not sure whether he wants that to be true, though. 

"Okay, good." Danny awkwardly rubs the dampness from his hands onto his pants, which he realizes probably makes them dirty again. "So, I should be okay to go find that call box, you think?"

"Yeah." She's plucking at a thread on the side of her pants and avoiding looking at him now. He's only ever felt this uneasy around a woman in the morning after a casual hook up, not just barely even a kiss, but she's acting decidedly odd and it's throwing him off. He just wants to escape. 

Maybe she's regretting it. Well, they can just forget it happened. They don't have to even talk about it. It was a nice kiss, sure, but it must not have meant anything to her. 

"Okay, then, do you want me to leave you the keys? Or I can just lock it, so you'll feel safe..."

"I'm fine." She tucks her feet under her and starts to pull the car door closed. Danny doesn't know why this is so difficult, but his stomach is in a knot and he really wants her to just look at him for a minute so he knows everything is still okay. 

But she won't meet his eyes, so after a moment, he takes off down the road. 

The car is still within eyeshot when he remembers his cell phone and turns back for it. He jogs up to the driver's side. "Hey, it's me, I thought I should take my phone in case I can get a signal..."

Mindy sits up from the little ball she's curled herself up in and wipes at her eyes, hiding her face. 

"Are you crying? Why are you crying?" Danny opens the door and she shrinks away from him. 

"I'm fine. Go call a tow truck or whatever." Her voice is thick. 

"What's the matter?" He sits beside her on the back seat and reaches for her, stiffly patting her shoulder. 

She shrugs him off. "Nothing, forget it, just go." 

He's about to, but as she turns from him, she sucks in a gasp, and it's shaky, almost a sob. 

"Mindy," he says quietly, and she breaks. 

"I just feel so stupid." She's still trying hard not to cry, wiping frantically at her cheeks, avoiding his eyes. Danny waits for her to continue, and finally she's composed enough to look at him. "I kissed you."

He nods, and he can't help but dart a glance down to her treacherous lips. 

"It was nice... I thought it was nice. I liked it." Mindy looks down, brushing her eyes again. "I'm such an idiot."

"Shut up." 

Her eyes flash with annoyance as she looks back up, but before she can bite Danny's head off, he's cupping her cheek and leaning in, quieting her with his lips. She's sweet and minty tasting, as if she planned this... He realizes she must have quickly brushed her teeth while he was trudging into the brush, and how disappointed she must have been when he didn't notice her kissable breath. 

"I liked it too," he says, low in his throat, as he curls his hand behind her neck and rests his forehead against hers. "Does that make me an idiot?"

"You're an idiot anyway," she giggles, wrapping her arms around him as her mouth returns to his. She kisses him soundly and it's not till they're both panting for breath that she pushes him away. "Go, hurry. I'm starving." 

Danny gets out of the car and leans back in, smiling tentatively at her. "I'll get us out of here and take you to breakfast?"

Mindy shakes her head. "You can make me breakfast. You need the practice." She reaches up and grabs two handfuls of his shirt and pulls him back to her for another kiss before shoving him out the door. 


End file.
